


Babysitting

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 05:05:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18866293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Carol babysits her own daughter!!!





	Babysitting

Rindy Aird lays on the couch in the living room wrapped in a blue knitted blanket. She is eating from a bag of popcorn with her tuxedo cat, Inky, curled up against her. The old horror film _Nosferatu_ plays on the AMC channel on TV. Her father soon approaches and stands behind the couch with his eyes narrowing on the grainy colored screen.

“Shut that off. You’re going to give yourself nightmares,” Harge tells the nine-year-old.

“It’s not that scary, Daddy,” Rindy responds back, chomping light buttered popcorn kernels with her teeth.

Harge sighs and stiffens when he hears the low chime of the doorbell. He leaves his daughter and the flashing TV behind to go answer the front door. Pulling it open, he finds his ex-wife, Carol, standing on the welcome mat. Her honey blonde hair looks extra curly and stylish. She wears little to no makeup with her car keys and phone wallet in one hand and a plastic tote bag slung over the other shoulder. 

“Hi,” Carol greets her ex-husband, smiling softly. She moves forward to be let in the house. Harge takes a step backwards.

“I’ll be back around midnight,” he grumbles, watching Carol remove her purple slicker jacket from her shoulders to go hang it up on the coat hook.

“Don’t turn into a pumpkin,” Carol says, and she grins while he glares and leaves the house quickly with the door shutting behind him.

“Hey pretty lady!” Carol sings to Rindy with full enthusiasm in the darkened living room. She lays down the tote bag on the floor beside the coffee table before moving over to come hug and kiss her child in warm greeting. Rindy jerks away from her mother to keep her eyes on the movie. She feels the cat awaken below and jumps down and lands on the floor on all four white paws. 

“What are you watching?” Carol looks back at the TV and keeps the cheerful attitude going for as long as she can. 

“Nosferatu,” Rindy says. She digs her hand back inside the popcorn bowl.

“Hmm, that might be a tad bit scary for you, sweetheart. How about we try and watch something else?” She picks up the remote and changes the channel without waiting for Rindy’s objection. She puts on Cartoon Network showing a rerun episode of Teen Titans Go!

Rindy throws a popcorn kernel back into the bowl with Carol slipping out of her sneakers. She reaches for her tote bag and pulls out a plastic bead kit box containing 1000 multicolored beads to make bracelets and necklaces. 

“Look what we can do all night!” she announced, excitedly.

Rindy yawns and scratches underneath the scoop neck collar of her Moana pajama shirt. She gives her mother a lazy smile while Carol playfully shakes the box before sitting herself down on the floor, starting to open up the activity kit. Rindy sits up and lays the snack bowl aside before climbing off the couch to the floor. She takes a hot pink strand of gimp from Carol and grabs a few glittery plastic beads to slide and slip through.


End file.
